The Rant Thread/My Life Sucks Topic [Don't be pricks]

[Maelstrom]

It's kind of sad these no longer amuse me.

[SlowPokemon]

Yo bot we're trying to have a moment here.

that amused me

[Yug_Guy]

Yo bot we're trying to have a moment here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nI8nWYoOfqk

My response to any bots on this site.

[ETFROXX]

Hey guys. I know I haven't been around lately but I need support.

I graduated last week with a degree in photography and I feel like I didn't learn shit. My teacher posts the "best in show" on the website and I had one fucking photo. One. Others had 4 or 5. To top it off my school does a little magazine that all media arts students contribute to. I submitted two pieces and neither got accepted. Others had, again, 4 or 5. I feel fucking pathetic. I'm a shitty photographer and my teacher knew that, I could feel his disappointment in me. I showed him a photo one day with an overexposed sky and he said "by now that shouldn't be a problem". So basically, what the fuck are you doing Jordan an amateur could do this. I just... I feel worthless, guys. Like I'm going nowhere. My photography is shit. I'm shit. I can't draw either. I know you guys like my drawings but God forbid I could draw anything original. I have zero talent and college was the biggest waste of my time.

[Maelstrom]

The question is this: Why are you a bad photographer? I don't mean to offend you in any way, but is there anything you know you are doing wrong?

[Tobbeh99]

Do you think your pieces are good, and that they are unjust towards you? Or do you feel like other people in your class make better pieces? In case, you might want to check out other artists/Photographer, and maybe lessons on internet, to get inspiration and see if there are some techniques/motifs you didn't know about.

[ZeldaFan]

ETF, I definitely feel the same way with my art... Feels like all my stuff sucks and I'm no good. Some people have to work harder than others, especially at art, and I'm one of them.  I'll try to give you some advice... Hope it helps.
1 - Don't compare your work to others. Your work is unique and meaningful in its own way and this is the best way to get discouraged.
2 - Accept others criticism and don't take it personally. When others judge or critique your work, they are not judging you (I know it can feel that way sometimes) they are judging your art, the composition, lighting, layout, etc. Try to improve/fix the piece if you can, or see what you can do to improve your next piece
3 - Keep practicing. It's hard and it sucks, especially when you think you aren't good, but don't give up! Take a thousand photos if you have to. They say it takes 10,000 hours to master something, so keep working at it.

Do you think you could post some of your photos? I'd like to see them

[Tobbeh99]

Reminds me about the time when I tried composing music. I usually picked out a theme that I thought sounded nice, .. but I didn't get anywhere from there, so what I was left with was a bunch of short themes. I tried really hard to continue them, but it didn't just work. And that's why arranging video game themes is much more fun , because then I don't need to composed anything original, but instead make the best out of the music already composed, and I can still be a bit creative in some parts if I feel that it enhances the arrangement.

[ETFROXX]

Thank you all for the responses. I understand all of you but with all due respect this is what I went to school for. I shouldn't have to be teaching myself this stuff now.

ZeldaFan, thank you for your tips, especially the first.

I'll post some of my photos tonight.

I'm currently at work and not having a good day. My dog back home, Chloe, has to have surgery today and might have cancer. We don't know if she's going to make it.

[mikey]

do you have a DSLR camera

[ETFROXX]

Yes, I do. I can't remember the exact model right now but I have a Nikon dslr.

[Maelstrom]

Yes, I do. I can't remember the exact model right now but I have a Nikon dslr.

Awesome. I totally wish I had a camera like that.

[mikey]

dslr's are the best

[FierceDeity]

ETF, as a fellow student of the creative arts, let me assure you that most people feel like shit in comparison to their peers. There's a guy in my year who came to college already a professional-tier film composer. And I'd go into collegium every week, and see his work, and the work of others, and think "What the fuck am I doing with my life? I'm so far behind!" But then I remembered that that guy has been working with Logic and the highest quality sound libraries since he was a freshman in high school, and he has a studio in his bedroom, and he was pushed to excel at violin from a very early age. That's not excelling at the curriculum, that's just making improvements on an individual basis. What I realize now is that the curriculum and this individual work are almost completely separate in how they shape you as a creator.

Do you think that your works are terrible? That your skies are overexposed, that the white balance is off, that all of this photography jargon of which I have no knowledge is shit? Good. The curriculum taught you to think that. I can guarantee you without seeing your work that I would still find it visually appealing. I can also say without seeing it that it could still be better. I assure you that your classmates look up to the photography greats and curse themselves for not being better, just as my classmate that I mentioned (nicest guy I've ever met, by the way) looks up to the film scoring greats and thinks the same way.

The only perspective that matters is this: looking back on the last year, the last month, the last week, can you say that you improved? And I'm sure you'll find that the answer is yes. Do yourself a favor and look back at your early works. I recently looked at my portfolio that I submitted to colleges, and nearly gagged. My professor asked me a few weeks ago to pick a piece I'd written to flesh out in pro tools. I couldn't. I am in the constant process of despising my past work. Because I know it could've been better. Because I know now what I didn't know then. The process of simply writing new pieces has given me these realizations, not some arbitrary, surface-level theory education tiered to the common denominator. Your education wasn't wasted if it didn't make into you an expert photographer. It simply gave you tools, tools which take years to learn to use effectively. And if you think that your current works are shit, too, then that's wonderful! It means you have a grasp of how those tools should work, and you just need some more time putting them into practice. Believe me. If you want to become better, you can become better.

Hopefully somewhere within that rant was something helpful. If not, the more coherent advice of earlier posters was right on the money.

[ETFROXX]

That actually did help, a lot. Thank you.

Here's my online portfolio on our school's site. The quality is shitty: http://www.cccneb.edu/programs/cccmart/gallery/photog/AdvPho15/digitalportfolio1.pdf